That Darned KNEE and Another SOUP! - Tomato Cheddar Dumpling Soup (Two Ways!)

My posts have been kind of spotty lately, partly because I've been working on my so-called "home office" and just this past weekend because The Uncooperative Knee went rogue again and Somebody had to have surgery on it.  That's NINE since March of 2019.  So it's going to be back to home nursing once again.

Oh well.  It is what it is.

ANYWAY!  I thought I had already written a post about this particular soup, but I was WRONG.  So here it is!

I found this soup recipe when I was browsing the internet.  It sounded tasty and easy (two reasons to like it), so it was put into the soup rotation.  It's a pretty basic recipe - tomato soup with cheddar dumplings, and really easy, no matter which way you decide you make it.  It's just super fast and convenient one way, and not so fast the other.  Mostly common pantry staples either way.


Tomato Cheddar Dumpling Soup (Two Ways)

The Original Way

For the soup:
2 T canola or olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped red bell pepper
3 T flour
28 oz whole canned tomatoes, undrained
2 c water
2 T minced celery leaves
2 T sugar
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t dried basil

For the dumplings:
1 c flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 T shortening or butter
1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 c milk

In a 4-quart pan, heat the oil, and saute the garlic, onion, and bell pepper until fragrant.  Blend in the flour and let it cook about a minute.  Add the tomatoes and break them up.  Add the remaining soup ingredients.  While it is heating to a simmer, mix up the dumplings.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in the shortening or butter to make loose crumbs.  Add the cheese and milk and mix until all dry ingredients have been moistened.

By this time, the soup should be at a simmer.  Drop the dumpling batter into the soup by tablespoons, or use a sprayed cookie scoop.  Cover and simmer 20 minutes.


The Convenient Way

For the soup:
Use your favorite shelf-stable tomato soup and prepare enough to make about 2 quarts of soup. Heat it to a simmer.  You might want to add some garlic powder and basil.  It's up to you!

For the dumplings:
1  7.75-oz box of Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit or similar mix (Aldi has a good one)
1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese
2 T melted butter
1/2 c milk

Mix all the ingredients together, including the contents of the entire seasoning packet from the biscuit mix.  Treat the batter the same way as the Original Way, above.  By this time, the soup should be at a simmer.  Drop the dumpling batter into the soup by tablespoons, or use a sprayed cookie scoop.  Cover and simmer 20 minutes.

OR

1 c Bisquick or similar baking mix (Jiffy makes a good one)
1/2 c shredded cheddar 
1/3 c milk

Mix all the ingredients together.  Treat the batter the same way as the Original Way, above.  By this time, the soup should be at a simmer.  Drop the dumpling batter into the soup by tablespoons, or use a sprayed cookie scoop.  Cover and simmer 20 minutes.

That's all there is to it!  

Yum-Yum Chicken - A Quick and Easy, Mostly Pantry Staples Recipe

That Girl told me about a dish she made - shrimp and yum-yum sauce over pasta.  I didn't go looking

for the sauce, but during my last foraging trip to Sam's Club, I walked past a BIG bottle of yum-yum sauce and decided to give it a try.  I already had some chicken breasts thawed, ready to cook for dinner, so that's what I used.  

It's a quick, easy, fairly brainless thing you throw together with just a few ingredients.  There are recipes online for yum-yum sauce if you want to make your own.  But the deal here is something you can pull together with minimum time and effort.

[NOTE:  I know this looks different from my earlier recipe posts, but the platform has been "streamlined," and now I can't control the line spacing!  We will see how this shakes out.]

Yum-Yum Chicken

2 T canola oil

2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips or cubes, as desired

3 T minced garlic

1 T red pepper flakes

2 c bottled yum-yum sauce

2 t sesame oil

8 oz pasta (your choice - I used farfalle), cooked per package directions

Heat oil in a 12" skillet or a 14" wok on medium heat, add minced garlic and cook one minute.  Add chicken, brown on both sides, and cook thoroughly.  Sprinkle with red pepper flakes.  Turn heat down to low and add sauce.  If you don't turn the heat down enough, the sauce will separate.  When heated through, remove from heat, stir in sesame oil, and serve over pasta.

Quick Boston Baked Beans (from Mom's Recipe Card File)

Mom told me eons ago that she got this recipe from a friend who was born and raised in Boston, and this is how her family made authentic Boston baked beans without soaking dried beans and all the hoo-haw that goes with it.  I've taken them to all sorts of pitch-ins over the years, and everybody raves over them and wants the recipe.  These are the BEST baked beans EVER.


Quick Boston Baked Beans

2 jars (18 oz each) B&M Original Baked Beans, drained, not rinsed
1/2 c ketchup
1/4 c chopped onion
2 T dark brown sugar
1 T mustard
1 T molasses
3 slices cooked bacon, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together and place in a sprayed baking dish.  Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbling and caramelized on top.

[NOTE:  If you can't find B&M Baked Beans, Bush's Boston Style Baked Beans will also work.  What you're looking for is navy pea beans in a brown sugar sauce.  Other canned "baked beans" won't do.]

My Favorite Summer Soup - Gazpacho - A Quick and Easy Pantry Recipe

I learned about gazpacho (gahs-PAH-cho) in high school Spanish class.  It's a tomato-based cold soup (stay with me, here - it's delicious!) originating in Andalusia (southern Spain) that's perfect for those hot hot hot summer days when nothing much sounds good except a plunge into a bathtub full of ice water.  When I first served it to That Man, I told him to think of it as a salad, because that's basically what it is.

The original recipe I have is preprinted on a 3x5 card.  I'd sent away for a packet of these recipes from Campbell's - yes, the soup people!  I tried a few of them and kept a couple - one for fettuccine alfredo and this one for gazpacho.  The original version makes quite a bit - just about 9 cups counting all the vegetables (which is nearly half again as much as what the recipe says it will make!), but I'll give you my cut down version first.  You'll need a blender that can crush ice for my blender version.


Quick Blender Gazpacho

1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed tomato soup
1 c ice and water (I put crushed or cubed ice in a measuring cup, then fill it with water)
1/4 t garlic powder (or more, if you're a garlic aficionado like I am!)
1 slice bread, toasted
4 t vinegar
2 t olive oil
1/3 c chopped bell pepper (any color)
2 T chopped onion
2/3 c chopped cucumber, divided

1/3 c chopped tomato

Put everything in the blender except for half of the chopped cucumber and all the chopped tomato.  Put the lid on the blender and puree until everything is well blended.  By the time you serve the soup, all the ice should be melted, and the soup should be good and cold.  You should be able to get 3 to 4 small bowls of soup from this recipe.  Serve the soup topped with the remaining chopped cucumber and the chopped tomato.  If you want, you can omit the toast and add some croutons to the toppings. although authentic gazpacho has bread in the soup.  Because I use ice as part of the water, you can serve this right away, instead of having to chill it for 4 or more hours before serving.


Here's the original recipe, as printed on the card from Campbell's:


Gazpacho (soups / sauces)

2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cans (10 3/4 ounces each) Campbell's Tomato Soup
3 cups cold water
1/4 cup wine vinegar
2 cups chopped cucumber
1 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
Croutons

In a small saucepan, cook garlic in olive oil; combine in a large bowl with soup, water, and vinegar.  Chill for 4 hours.  Serve in chilled bowls.  Pass chilled vegetables and croutons for garnish.  Makes about 6 1/2 cups.

Blender Version:  Cook garlic as above.  Combine in electric blender with 1 can soup, 1 cup water, 1/4 cup cucumber, 1/4 cup green pepper, 2 tablespoons onion, and 2 slices toast.  Blend until smooth; combine in a large bowl with remaining soup, water, and vinegar.  Chill as above.  Garnish with remaining vegetables.

TESTED RECIPE / HOME ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT / CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY

Chicken Alfredo Casserole - Easy Comfort Food from the Pantry

I was moping around the house, wondering what to fix for dinner.  No motivation.  Just down in the dumps, sort of.  I needed some Comfort Food.  I stared blankly into the turntable cabinet, and finally, inspiration!  Chicken alfredo casserole to the rescue!

Nothing to thaw, nothing exotic.  Just pantry and refrigerator staples.  I did liven it up a bit by steaming some fresh asparagus from the garden for a side dish.


Chicken Alfredo Casserole

8 to 16 oz farfalle (or pasta of your choice)
1 jar (14 1/2 oz) alfredo sauce (I like Prego)
12 oz canned white meat chicken, undrained
9 oz jarred whole button mushrooms, drained
2 cups (8 oz) shredded Italian blend cheese, divided
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook pasta according to directions on the box.  While the pasta cooks, mix the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl, reserving 1 cup of the shredded cheese for the topping. 

When the pasta is al dente, drain and then add it to the mixture in the bowl.  Mix everything together well.  Place the mixture in a sprayed 9" x 13" baking dish, and spread the remaining shredded cheese over the top.  Cover with foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove foil and return to the oven for an additional 5 to 10 minutes to melt and brown the cheese.  Remove from the oven and allow to sit about 5 minutes before serving.

NOTE:  You can use anywhere from 8 to 16 oz of pasta, depending on what you like.  Me, I LOVE pasta, so I use the whole 16 oz.  If you use less, you may want to use a smaller baking dish.  You may want to adjust how much alfredo sauce, too, if you use the full 16 oz of pasta and like your pasta saucy.  Have FUN with it!

Red (or Black) Beans and Rice Tortilla Casserole - A Recipe from the Pantry

I found this recipe on the back of a box of Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice, except that when I got around to actually making it (this week!) I only had boxes of Zatarain's Black Beans and Rice!  Because of the pandemic, rice of all kinds, including boxed mixes, has been scarce.  I've seen packages of Jasmine rice, Basmati rice, and, now and then, brown rice, but if you're able to score plain old white rice or any of the boxed mixes like Uncle Ben's, Zatarain's, or Rice-A-Roni, it's time to celebrate!

Anyway, I was in a little bit of a hurry and didn't have time to thaw any meat.  This recipe was sitting on the counter, and I took that as a sign.  It's easy, fairly quick, tastes good, and not exotic.  Sometimes you want comfort food, but something a little different, and this fit the bill.

Before the toppings!

Red (or Black) Beans and Rice Tortilla Casserole

1 7-oz box Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice OR Black Beans and Rice
1 T butter or oil
2 1/2 c water
1 15-oz can corn, drained
1 4-oz can green chilies, undrained
1 t cumin
6 8-inch flour tortillas
2 12-oz cans white meat chicken, drained OR 2 c shredded cooked chicken
2 c (8 oz) shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese

Using the first three ingredients, prepare the rice and beans mix as directed on the package, adding the corn, green chilies, and cumin at the same time.  You will simmer this mixture for 25 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a sprayed 11" x 7" baking dish, spread 1/2 cup of the rice mixture.  Top with 3 of the tortillas, overlapping as needed.  Layer with 1/2 each of the remaining rice mixture, the chicken, and the cheese.  Repeat the layers with the rest of the tortillas, rice mixture, chicken, and cheese.  Cover with non-stick foil.

Bake 20 minutes, uncover, bake an additional 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let rest 5 minutes before serving.  Top with sour cream, salsa, and chopped green onions, if desired.

Confetti Bean Soup (A Pantry Recipe)

This is the same recipe as for Seven-Bean Soup that I found on a bag of dried mixed beans eons ago.  I'm too lazy to soak dry beans, so I use canned.  I call it confetti bean soup because I use every kind of canned bean I can find in the stores, and so with all the different shapes and colors of the beans, the soup looks kind of like confetti.

We had ham for Easter, and I always freeze some of the leftovers in one-pound portions specifically to use in this soup or Senate Bean Soup.  Most of the other ingredients come straight out of the pantry, so I always have the ingredients on hand.


Confetti Bean Soup

2 T canola oil or butter
1 large or 2 medium onions, chopped
12 or 13 15-oz cans beans* (all different kinds), drained and rinsed
2 c water
3 15-oz cans diced tomatoes
2 15-oz cans diced tomatoes with green chilis
2 15-oz cans diced tomatoes with garlic and onion
1 10-oz cans Ro-Tel (Hot)
2 T red pepper flakes
3 T lemon juice
1 or 1 1/2 lb cooked ham, cubed or shredded

In a large (12-quart) stockpot, brown the onion in the oil or butter.  Add the remaining ingredients; bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes. 

*These are the beans I use:  black, dark red kidney, light red kidney, red, pink, pinto, cannellini, garbanzo (chickpeas), black-eyed peas, baby butter, navy, great northern, and lentils.  If you can't find this many kinds of beans, or you don't want to make this much (it's like an ocean of soup!), the proportion of canned tomatoes to beans is 1 to 2, and if there is an odd number of beans, then add another can of tomatoes.  So, in this recipe, there are 13 cans of beans and 7 cans of tomatoes (don't count the Ro-Tel).  If you only have 10 cans of beans, you'll need 5 cans of tomatoes. You choose the varieties.

Sloppy Joes (From Mom's Recipe Card File)

Like everyone else staying home because of the coronavirus pandemic, we've been eating at home, which means I've been cooking and cooking and cooking.

When I want to make something I can count on to please everyone, I often fix Mom's "Barbecue," or Sloppy Joes!  It's a simple, all-pantry-ingredient recipe (except for the buns) that we never tire of eating.  Great comfort food.  I make it about every other week.

I make a large-ish batch so I'll have leftovers.  It freezes well, but we usually end up eating it all in a couple of days.  Something else I like to do is to mix all the sauce ingredients up and freeze that.  Then all I have to do is grab a container of sauce out of the freezer and add it to 2 pounds of lean ground beef and 1 cup of chopped onions, browned.  I usually make two to four containers of sauce at a time.  So convenient!


Sloppy Joes

2 lb lean ground beef
1 c chopped onions
1 1/2 c ketchup (I like Heinz)
3/4 c sugar
3 T mustard
1 T prepared horseradish (or to taste)
1 T vinegar
1 1/2 t celery seed
1 1/2 t Worchestershire sauce

Brown the ground beef and onion.  If not using lean ground beef, drain; if using lean ground beef, cook until nearly all the juices have evaporated.

Add the remaining ingredients, simmer about 20 minutes.  Serve on sandwich buns.

Shrimp Creole (Another Easy Pantry Recipe)

Zatarain's used to make a Creole rice mix, but after McCormick bought them out, I guess they decided that particular product wasn't necessary anymore.  I actually bought a case of it on Amazon when I couldn't find it in the stores.  When that was gone, I played around, trying to figure out a replacement.  Here's what I eventually came up with, and it's not bad at all!


Shrimp Creole from the Pantry

1 T butter
1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped celery
1 chopped bell peppers
1 T minced garlic
1 1/2 t creole seasoning
1 15-oz can stewed tomatoes
2 1/2 c water
1 box Zatarain's jambalaya rice mix (not family size)
12-oz package frozen, cooked, shelled, tailless shrimp

In a 4-quart saucepan or dutch oven, melt butter, add the onion, celery, bell peppers, and garlic.  Saute until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.  Add the seasoning, tomatoes, water, and jambalaya mix.  Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer 15 minutes.  Add shrimp, bring back to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer 10 minutes.

Five-Bean Pantry Chili

The weather's cooling off, and it's time for chili!  I've tried a lot of chili recipes, and this is the one I've come up with - some Tex-Mex heat, some Cincinnati cinnamon, and lots of tomatoes, beans, and chili powder, all from the pantry.

This makes a lot because I believe in planned leftovers (less cooking that way).   You can use the leftovers in place of the meat filling in my Mom's tamale bake.

You can serve this with cornbread, saltine crackers, cooked macaroni, cheese, or sour cream, or leave it nekkid!


Five-Bean Chili

1 lb lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 cans chili-ready diced tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes and green chilis
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can Ro-Tel (hot)
1/2 c dark chili powder
1/4 c sugar
1 T hot sauce, or to taste
1 T cinnamon
1 t cumin
1 t salt
1 can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can red beans, drained and rinsed
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

In an 8-quart stockpot, brown and break up the ground beef and onion.  Add all tomatoes and seasonings.  Bring to a boil.

Add beans and return to a boil.  Turn down heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes.

Emergency! Got Prepped?

I've recently gotten interested in emergency preparedness.  I've always been interested in being self-sufficient - vegetable gardening, sewing, knitting - you know, doing things for yourself, and not relying totally on the supply infrastructure.  But I read a couple of books (The Prepper's Pocket Guide: 101 Easy Things You Can Do to Ready Your Home for a Disaster, and Prepper's Instruction Manual: 50 Steps to Prepare for Any Disaster), and they've made me think.

I think about tornados, and ice storms, and local flooding.  I remember being without power for a week in January.  But everybody thinks about natural disasters.  What if your income dries up?  Or there's a medical emergency?  Or your house burns?  Or grocery stores can't get deliveries?  So many "what ifs!"

Here’s an interesting note – one of the first things I read in the emergency preparedness book was to DECLUTTER YOUR HOUSE!  Because when your house is decluttered, you will be able to get to your emergency exits (fire, etc.) and your emergency supplies (first aid kit, food, candles, generator, batteries, flashlights, etc.).  One more excellent reason to get rid of the STUFF!

Anyway, I bought a NOAA weather radio (at the grocery store, of all places!) and set it up.  That was pretty fast!  The most time-consuming part was editing which alerts for it to actually announce.  I didn’t think hurricanes or tropical storms or avalanche watches/warnings would be of much interest here in Indiana.  

The bigger (and more long-term) project was making sure there is enough food in the house to feed us all for a month.  The first step is to KNOW what you DO have.  Oh dear. 

Because our house was originally built in the mid-1950s, the kitchen is a decent size, but there is a lot of wasted space, and really, not much cabinet space, so I had put a metal shelf unit and some rolling wire basket carts in our utility room, elegantly renaming this hellhole our “pantry!” 

The shelf unit sat perpendicular to the wall, alongside the furnace.  The carts were lined up along the wall.  That was so “everything would be accessible.”  Well, that was the original thinking, but it really WASN’T.  Stuff got shoved to the back of the shelf unit, and lost in the baskets.  And I never knew how much I had.  Another place we store food is in a corner carousel cabinet in the kitchen – a dark, scary place where things also get shoved farther and farther back until they languish and expire.  UGH.

So, I started Friday evening.  I rolled all the wire basket carts into the kitchen.  Two are small with fixed baskets.  One is a little larger, with pull-out drawer-type baskets.  One is much larger, with pull-out drawer-type baskets.  Most of them were less than half full!

I took everything off the metal shelves and piled it on the kitchen counters.  I dusted and washed the shelves.  I moved the unit out and cleaned the floor where everything had been sitting.  I put the unit back, but this time along the wall.  Amazing.  I can get at everything on the shelves without reaching way back and knocking things off behind!

I went through all the stuff from the shelf unit and threw out everything beyond its expiration date.  I threw out heaps of stuff, which left LOTS of empty space!  I filled up a couple of trash bags by the time I was done.  I took a marker, found the expiration date for everything and wrote it in an OBVIOUS location on each item.  I sorted the items by what they were, and then sorted them by the expiration dates.  I pulled all the canned goods out of the carousel cabinet and did the same to  them.

I’ve been collecting 12-pack soft drink can packages for this project.  I cut a hole on the top on the package at the back for loading them, and put a label on the front of each one.  Then I loaded the date-labeled canned goods into the packages, oldest first.  I lined them up on the shelves.  Now I have can dispensers!  I can see what’s supposed to be in that location, and how many there are.  A 12-pack holds six 15-oz cans of veggeis, etc.  It would probably hold 12 of condensed soup cans.  It won’t hold the larger soup cans (they’re too tall).  So I have a package of diced tomatoes, one of corn, one of cream style corn, one of stewed tomatoes, etc.   All very organized and neat.  I put all the unopened cereal boxes on the top shelf.  I put other boxed stuff on the second and third shelves.  All the canned stuff is on the bottom 3 shelves. 

I really didn’t get to the wire basket cart things.  (That Man and That Girl came home early from his drag race – he lost first round – RATS!)

But I was fixing dinner, and got something out of the one other (wall) cabinet in the kitchen where I keep some food.  I pulled another item out, looked at the expiration date, and pitched it.  Um, about ¾ of the stuff in that cabinet got the heave-ho.  It’s looking pretty empty!  That wasn’t even part of the plan yet – it just happened.

I didn’t get to the bottom shelf of the carousel cabinet, but oh my!  What an improvement!  The stuff I organized, I can SEE – ALL OF IT.  And it will all get used – first in, first out!  I’m going to put things in there that I only keep one or two of – syrup, cooking oil, olives, Tabasco – that kind of stuff.

The next step will be to empty those wire basket carts and either put them to use somewhere else, or GET RID OF THEM!  I’m going to keep the big one.  It fits along the wall next to the shelf unit perfectly, so nothing will be blocked.  Everything will be truly accessible. 

Then I will seriously tackle the CHEST FREEZER.  Oh my.  The Black Hole of Calcutta.  Not good.

Pray for me!